If you think you’re in New York, no one will disagree with you. So heavily overladen with graffiti, at times, Berlin resembles an American city in the mid-1980s. The fact that internationals are heavily responsible for the art (including a heavy dose of New Yorkers) does little to dissuade such comparisons. However, push a little deeper into the German capitol, and you’ll begin to notice some serious differences.
One such distinction is the political art. Anarchist, communist, multiculturalist, anti-Fascist. Berlin has amongst the most identifiable streams of political flyers to be found in any world city. Even more local, however, will be less common, sharpie-penned statements like this, the kind that only leftwing activists and intellectuals take serious. Denouncing Naomi Klein, as though she were a commodity, is a uniquely Berlin sort of thing to do.
In some ways it’s less about Klein, than it is about asserting the superior of Berlin’s brand of progressiveness over everyone else’s, the million-selling leftwing author included. The significance of their work is less important than their media footprint.
Photograph courtesy of Jennifer Crakow
